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legislation

noun

Simple meaning

Making or enacting laws.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

lehjuhslayshuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

lɛdʒəsˈleɪʃən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A law which has been enacted by legislature or other governing body.

  2. The act of legislating; preparation and enactment of laws.

  3. The act of making or enacting laws

  4. Law enacted by a legislative body

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A law which has been enacted by legislature or other governing body.

Used this way, legislation is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Clinical and technical
Usage feel
Technical and specialized

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Nearby words

  • statute law , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use legislation

  • “New environmental legislation was passed by the government today.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

special legislationnew legislationfederal legislationsocial legislationstate legislationlabor legislationnational legislation

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • antitrust legislationnounCompound term

    Law intended to promote free competition in the market place by outlawing monopolies.

  • enabling legislationnounCompound term

    Legislation that gives appropriate officials the authority to implement or enforce the law.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • legislateverbRelated term

    Make laws, bills, etc. or bring into effect by legislation.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: law which has been enacted by legislature

statute lawTechnicallawmaking

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.